@Jeff Pearson I'm trained as a respiratory therapist for my first career.

**Please note that I am not an attorney and have no training in law so these are just suggestions based on experience. 

I know I've seen that the first step is a trainee, but do I just look for someone to train me or are there positions that have me as a trainee so I can earn while I build up my hours?

If you are planning on getting involved with getting your Michigan real estate licensee,  I would recommend getting familiar with the brokerages in the area to do a couple of things first find an agent that can give you some current market data and second to find a brokerage that you work well with, have similar goals and training programs that aline with your needs and wants.   

She has suggested that I could become a loan officer or contractor, and has connections who could train/hire me. 

Theo Hicks provides a Syndication School training with Joe.  

It's a bit of a fine line because you definitely don't want to encourage tenants to call you more than needed, but that comes from training them later after you've built that critical initial rapport.

Right now, I am working on obtaining my MO (and then KS) Real Estate license, reading tons of books (I have a very long book list), listening to the podcast, doing some online real estate investing training, and doing lots of my own research.

These are professionals with additional training and a stricter code of ethics.

Great suggestion....I know there are a lot of You tubers that offer some free training videos on Lease Options.